Will Barfoot was 9 years old when his mother drove him from house to house to knock on doors and convince east Montgomery residents to vote his uncle, Joel Barfoot, onto the Montgomery County Commission.

The Barfoots succeeded, Joel won the 1980 election for the County Commission District 5 seat and a young Will received his first political bug bite, an itch he would scratch by assisting different campaigns until making an unsuccessful run of his own for the State Senate District 25 seat in 2006.

Now Barfoot is once again seeking to represent the district where he was born and raised. In November, the Republican longtime local attorney will vie for the District 25 Senate seat against Democrat David Sadler.

“All of us have the same goal, whether you’re Democrat or Republican,” Barfoot said. “You want better job opportunities. You want to make sure your children get a good education. And you want to make sure you don’t have to wear body armor on the way home. And unfortunately for part of the district that’s a reality.”

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Will Barfoot, shown in Montgomery, Ala., on Thursday October 11, 2018, is running for House District 25.(Photo: Mickey Welsh / Advertiser)

A partner at the Barfoot & Schoettker firm, Barfoot is running as a common sense business owner, a one-leg-at-a-time type of everyman who opposes higher taxes, supports keeping rural hospitals and nursing homes open, and wants to be at the forefront of attracting economic development opportunities to his district.

“If you start losing rural hospitals and nursing homes, quality of life goes down. If someone in Crenshaw County is in a nursing home and their relatives who live there can come see them, they stand a much better chance of having a better life for a bit longer than if they were 50 miles away and their relatives couldn’t see them as much,” Barfoot said.

Each platform Barfoot describes, he qualifies with a variation of, “That sounds like such a political line, but it’s true.”

That’s because Barfoot is selling himself as the anti-politician. He advocates for a three-term limit for Alabama legislators and believes being a politician should not be a career move.

“The longer you stay there, the more out of touch you can be. I think if you have three consecutive terms, by that point you’ve probably expended most of the good ideas you’ve had,” Barfoot said.

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Will Barfoot, shown in Montgomery, Ala., on Thursday October 11, 2018, is running for House District 25.(Photo: Mickey Welsh / Advertiser)

It’s the same message Barfoot bartered for votes in 2006. Then a 34-year-old newcomer to the political arena, Barfoot advertised himself as the antidote to “career politicians” like Sen. Larry Dixon, R-Montgomery, his opponent who at the time was seeking — and eventually won — his seventh consecutive term.

Barfoot admits he was a tad “naive” to think he could topple Dixon, but 12 years later, Barfoot is the favorite, a native son and Jefferson Davis High School graduate who grew up in Pike Road, made $2 an hour working his first job at the Kirksey Grocery general store and is now knocking on doors for his own campaign. Running in a predominantly white, Republican district that last elected a Democrat in 1982 — coincidentally it was Dixon prior to the senator switching parties — Barfoot finds himself no longer playing the underdog role.

While those contributions threaten to undermine his image as someone existing outside the trappings of the political machine — Barfoot received $49,500 in PAC money in September alone — Barfoot decried the idea of him being a political flunky for Alabama special interest groups.

He pointed out that his primary opponent, Ronda Walker, outraised him and he didn't receive any PAC money until after the primary election.

"We were not the darling of big business, the big PACs out there. A lot of them supported her heavily and didn’t give me any," Barfoot said.

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Will Barfoot, shown in Montgomery, Ala., on Thursday October 11, 2018, is running for House District 25.(Photo: Mickey Welsh / Advertiser)

Although he grew up wanting to ride on the back of garbage trucks, Barfoot received his law degree from Faulkner University's Jones School of Law in 2001 after earning a degree in international studies from Auburn University at Montgomery.

In the years following, Barfoot gained law experience while staying active in politics. He served as temporary Montgomery County probate judge in 2005 and in 2008, was elected to serve as a delegate for Mike Huckabee at the Republican National Convention.

Currently, Barfoot primarily handles accident and injury cases as well as child dependency and probate hearings.

His experience with the latter has shaped his opinions on hot button issues such as mental health, which Barfoot called a "huge problem" that should not be dealt with in the judicial system.

"The ones you see who continue to come through the probate system in a mental health crisis, they're the ones who a lot of the time don't have a family structure, I think we need to do a better job with mental health," Barfoot said.

Barfoot is also leaning against a state lottery although he supports the citizens' right to vote on it, saying, "It's inevitable that it will be most bought by those who can afford it least."

Will Barfoot, shown in Montgomery, Ala., on Thursday October 11, 2018, is running for House District 25.(Photo: Mickey Welsh / Advertiser)

Barfoot's views follow conservative lines as one might expect from a man whose daughter Reagan is named for the former Republican president. But Barfoot said he is willing to listen and learn from those living in his district and working in the fields and industries that will be affected by policies he hopes to help create.

On Medicaid expansion for instance, Barfoot said, "My knee-jerk reaction is to oppose it, but I have no idea what the numbers are. That’s something I’d have to get in there and see."

"You can’t lose sight of the fact you represent individuals.You can’t always just be against something. You have to be for something as well. I'm fiscally and socially conservative, but I'm willing to listen," Barfoot said.

Name: Will Barfoot

Age: 47

Profession: Attorney

Family: Wife and five children

Education: Juris Doctorate, Jones School of Law, 2000; B.A., International Studies, Auburn University at Montgomery, 1995